Singh's body was recovered July 10 from the charred hulk of a taxi in a SeaTac neighborhood. He had been fatally shot just before residents spotted his fire-engulfed cab and called 911 about 3:30 a.m.

Police tracked Collins to Chicago, where he is being held in the Cook County Jail, pending extradition to Washington.

News spread fast in Seattle streets among taxi drivers about the arrest. Cabdrivers, accustomed to occasional reports of their brethren being assaulted or robbed, were especially shaken by the killer's decision to torch the cab.

"Every driver was so upset," said Kashmir Sandhu as he waited for customers in his bright green Farwest taxi outside the Hotel Monaco. "As a human being, I think he should be punished."

Investigators believe Collins called for a Farwest cab in the early morning of July 10 as part of a plot to rob and kill the driver.

"It's an extremely heinous crime," said King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart, about the trap Collins allegedly laid. "All murders are by definition heinous, but this one. ... It's a bad one."

Witnesses told investigators that Collins "had recently lost a lot of money shooting dice and had been talking about 'jacking someone' to get money," according to court documents.

Singh's nephew, Kulwinder Singh, said detectives called him Tuesday with the news.

"I was so happy that someone was arrested," he said.

Jagjit Singh, 43, was slain after someone called Farwest just after 2:30 a.m. that morning requesting a cab to an address in the 3800 block of South 177th Street in SeaTac.

Within an hour, firefighters were called to a report of a vehicle on fire. At first, they did not even realize anyone was inside the cab.

Later, an autopsy revealed that Singh was already dead when the fire was set around his lap. He had been shot twice in the head.

In court documents, investigators spell out just how little Collins did to cover his tracks.

It began with the address to which the cab was sent -- a home where Collins lives in a bedroom off the garage.

Detectives also noted a trail of blood from where the cab was first seen on fire and pennies leading up the driveway to Collins' home.

Tracing the phone from which the call to Farwest came, detectives found a former girlfriend of Collins', who said she sold him her old phone.

Other witnesses listened to the recording of the man who called for the cab, who identified himself as "Lenell," and said the voice sounded like Collins.

In a search of his home, detectives found burnt clothing, some still wet with bleach.

Other witnesses told detectives Collins had a revolver and had recently lost money shooting dice.

According to the court documents, one witness told investigators "that Earnest had talked about robbing taxi cabdrivers and believed it would be an easy way to get money."

Another witness said Collins' girlfriend had recently wired him money because he was "hot and needed to lay low."

Detectives found the girlfriend in the King County Youth Services Center, and got a search warrant for her purse. Inside, they found an address in Chicago's Oak Park neighborhood.

Monday, Chicago detectives went to that address and arrested Collins. His 15-year-old brother also was taken into custody on an unrelated assault charge.

Collins' earlier contacts with police include arrests for assault and malicious mischief. Just past 11:30 p.m. April 18, Collins was found in South Seattle, riding in a car where police later found two handguns, both loaded. One was reported stolen from Pierce County.

At the time, Collins gave an alias of Jovani McBee, even signing that as his name on some documents. When he finally admitted his true name, he was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for investigation of obstruction.

According to a police report, Collins told police he was a member of a local Seattle gang. He denied knowing anything about the guns.

Singh's nephew, who said he had never been separated from his uncle for more than a few months at a time, said he still misses him greatly.

There are tentative plans to hold services for Jagjit Singh on Saturday, which will include a long procession of cabs, the nephew said.

While many of Jagjit Singh's friends and fellow cabdrivers are expected to attend Saturday's service, his new wife won't be there. She has been unable to obtain the necessary visa to come.

Wessen Darge, a longtime Orange cabdriver, said he was thankful to hear the news.

"Sometimes we feel that if any victim doesn't have a strong community (tie) or strong family, we feel the police will not pursue to catch the killer. But I think they did and I appreciate them," he said.

"Nobody will get away with a crime like that," said Darge, who had a taxi-driver friend who was slain in Dallas by a 16- year-old robber.

Sandhu, the cabdriver outside Hotel Monaco, said hearing about the suspect's capture didn't make him feel any safer. He said he would like the city to allow cabs to install Plexiglas screens between the driver and customer.

"It doesn't matter whether he got caught or not, there are so many other bad people out there," he said.